


until it wasn't

by writingkilledreality



Series: the bird and the gemstone [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Age Difference, Anger, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, Missing Scene, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Sad, Volume 4 Chapter 7, Volume 4 Chapter 8, kindof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 17:38:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9559913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingkilledreality/pseuds/writingkilledreality
Summary: "I'm sorry," Ruby whispered out. Qrow's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as he watched the girl beside him, not even trying to make her look at him. "I'm sorry you got hurt. I should've listened to you. I should've stayed back and not intervened. I should've listened. Why didn't I listen?"





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello, i've had the beginning of this written since episode 7. i never got to finishing it because of my surgery but here it is now.  
> don't ask if i think qrow will die. i don't know. i hope not.

The last of the fire crawled along the blackened logs, beginning to die into a soft, half-hearted crackle. Ruby watched as the fire began to dwindle as if the flames were tired from the effort of burning. A harsh wind made its way into the woods, causing the last of the flames to die out. The darkness surrounded her, the only light source being the dull red glow of the still hot embers. Ruby let out a sigh before getting up from the fallen tree log she was sitting on. She crouched down and carefully gathered the embers into a neat pile, adding kindling to the pile. She blew on the fire gently, relieved when flames began to form. She added firewood to the flames, watching as the fire roared back to life. 

Ruby sank back to her seat, staring into the fire once again. She wrapped her arms around herself as a gust of wind blew around her. She scanned their campsite, looking for any impending danger before turning back to the fire. She glanced over at her friends, who were all fast asleep in their sleeping bags on three different sides of the fire. Ruby kicked lightly at her own red sleeping bag that was still rolled up beside her. She reached out for the stick she had been using to keep the fire alive, before boredly poking at the fire.  

Ruby stiffened at the sound of slow and uneven steps coming in her direction, instinctively moving to grab Crescent Rose. Her hand froze, hovering over the weapon, as the source of the footsteps came into her line of sight. Qrow slowly limped his way over to her, his hand hovering over the wound he received earlier in the day as he tried to hide the obvious pain he was in. Ruby moved to help him but was quickly stopped with a wave of Qrow's hand. He carefully sat beside her, trying and failing to hide his grimace. Her mind flashed back to the utter look of pain on Qrow's face when he was grazed as Ruby quickly turned away from him, resuming her poking at the embers. She resisted the urge to look at him and the bandage that was wound tightly around him, keeping the cut from bleeding further until Qrow's aura was back to its normal state. Ruby felt his hand graze against the side of hers as she smiled at the gentle gesture. He knew her all too well. Qrow placed his hand over her hand, his fingers trailing along her knuckles. Now he was just trying to get her attention.  

Ruby set the stick she was using down before giving in and turning her attention to him, smile still pulling at her lips. 

"Hey," he breathed out, sounding just as he did when he saved her from being stabbed and taken.  

"Hey." Her voice kept low to as to not wake her friends. "How was your walk?"  

"Ruby Rose, master of small talk," he teased as Ruby breathed out a laugh. "It was fine." Qrow gave her a smile that made her melt inside. Her cheeks grew warm as she nervously glanced down away from his gaze, catching sight of the bandage.  

"Are you going to be okay?" Qrow looked down briefly before giving her that smile, the only smile of his that irritated her more than anything. The smile he always gave her when he was trying to protect her from what he was feeling, when he was hiding what he was feeling. Ruby could tell that he was in pain and he was trying to hide it the best he could.  

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said as he shrugged, wincing in pain. Ruby winced internally with him as she turned her line of slight back to the fire. She took in a deep breath, trying to reassure herself that Qrow was right and that he would be fine.  

"I'm sorry," Ruby whispered out. Qrow's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as he watched the girl beside him, not even trying to make her look at him. "I'm sorry you got hurt. I should've listened to you. I should've stayed back and not intervened. I should've listened. Why didn't I _listen_?" Ruby's voice cracked at the end, her eyes squeezing shut. She let out a sigh, slowly opening her eyes, staring out into the darkness. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just wanted to help. Tyrian was after me. You got hurt protecting me; you were hurt because someone was going to take _me_ and because I was too stubborn to let you handle it on your own."  

"Little red," Qrow spoke up, finally trying to gain her attention. Ruby kept her gaze on the dark woods that surrounded them, only glancing down slightly to make sure her temporary team was still asleep and not listening. "Ruby," he tried again, letting out a sigh when he realized that she wasn't going to budge. Qrow reached into his pocket, pulling out his flask and taking a swig from it as he too stared straight ahead. "This isn't your fault. I know you, Ruby Rose, you have placed the weight of the world on your shoulders when it isn't yours to bear. Me getting _grazed_ isn't your fault. _I_ let my guard down." 

"You were fighting him to save me," Ruby voiced in a monotone.  

"And I would do it again!" Qrow shouted as they both stiffened. Both Qrow and Ruby looked to make sure that no one was woken up by Qrow's outburst. After a moment of being frozen in their spots, they both relaxed when no one even shifted in their sleep. Qrow took another drink as Ruby turned to look at him, a glare being sent in his direction.  

"Don't do that," she said, pulling her hand from his, her anger and frustration growing as he swallowed another gulp of alcohol, "You know I hate when you do that."  

"Good, get angry," Qrow said, "At least then you're actually looking at me while I'm talking." Ruby reached out and wrestled the flask from his hands before throwing it behind her where it hit a tree and landed on the ground. Qrow glared at the red hooded girl before let out a sigh. "I was _protecting_ you. I wasn't going to let that Tyrian guy take you, your friends weren't going to let that happen either. I got grazed barely. That was _not_ your fault. You said it yourself, Ruby, you weren't going to stand around and watch someone get hurt. Well, _I_ wasn't going to stand around and watch _you_ get hurt. I was protecting you. The same thing you would've done if it was me. The thing _you did_ do because it _was_ me. It wasn't just my fight; he was after you, it was your fight too. It was _our_ fight. We fought him off together." Qrow watched as Ruby deflated, the anger turning back to sadness.  

"Why didn't you just travel with us?" Ruby whispered, "You could've been there when he first attacked. You could've been there when I was still at full aura. It could have been a proper fight. We could've fought him off together, and you wouldn't have been hurt. Why didn't you just travel with us? Why couldn't you have told us the truth from the beginning? Why—" She choked up slightly, fresh tears making their way down her face. "Why did you use me as bait?" Qrow felt a pain in his chest as Ruby broke down into sobs. 

"This isn't just about me getting hurt," Qrow spoke softly, watching as Ruby tried to silence her sobs.  

"No. It's not," Ruby cried, " _You knew_ I was in danger because of my silver eyes. _You knew_ they were more than likely going to send someone after me. You have been keeping all these secrets from me. And maybe I could understand it for awhile, but you had the _perfect_ chance to tell me _everything_ when you told me about silver eyes, about where our enemies were, when I was leaving for this trip. You could've told me about  _who_ I was trying to stop, about the people who are after me, about the people who have put me and my friends and _hundreds_ of other people through _hell_." Ruby wiped at her eyes as Qrow resisted the urge to reach out and comfort her. He knew she had been holding everything in. He knew that she needed to get all of her anger and frustration out.  

"You were following us this entire time. You were protecting us, watching over us. I know you saw everything we saw, experienced everything we experienced, it was all just at a different viewpoint. See, that's what makes me mad the most. You saw _every_ horrid thing we saw. Every Grimm, every destroyed village, every person in danger, _everything_ , you saw everything we saw." Ruby paused briefly, glancing down at her hands. "You saw every night we camped out in the rain. You saw every night Jaune was training. You saw me struggling to keep it together, because _I_ had to be the strong one, _I_ had to be the one to hold everyone together. You saw _every_ nightmare I woke up screaming from. You saw me missing and worrying about dad and Yang  _every day_. You saw me cry myself to sleep _every night_ because I miss my team, my family, more than I ever thought possible. You-you saw how much I missed you, and how missing you— _god_ , Qrow, it hurt _so much_. I missed you more than anything and it hurt like hell. I was missing you and you were there the _entire_ time. You were watching me hurting and trying to keep it together, and you didn't do anything. _You didn't even care_."  

Ruby fell apart into a bundle of tears as Qrow wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close despite the pain radiating from his side.  

"It's okay," he cooed, rocking her gently, "I've got you."  

"I missed you so much. Then I finally see you and you get hurt," Ruby cried.  

"I know. I know. I'm so sorry, little red. I'm so sorry," he murmured, pressing a kiss into her hair. Qrow pulled away and lifted her chin up so that she met his gaze. "You have been so strong this entire time, and I am so proud of you. I'm sorry for all the pain you've been going through. I'm sorry that I've caused some of it. But I'm here now. You don't have to carry the world on your own. I've got you."  

"No more secrets?" Ruby questioned, silent tears now streaming down her face.  

"No more secrets," Qrow promised, brushing her hair from her face. Ruby launched herself into Qrow's arms, wrapping her arms around his neck. Qrow returned her hug, ignoring the pain that it was causing him. "I've missed you so much," he whispered into her hair as she nodded in agreement. She pulled away from the hug, sending him a reassuring smile. Qrow reached out, wiping the away her tears with his thumb, his hand caressing her cheek gingerly.  

"I really needed to get all of that out," Ruby whispered, trying not to ruin the moment between them.  

"I know," he replied, still wiping the tears from her face. Ruby met his eyes as she sucked in a breath. She let out a shaky breath as Qrow stopped wiping at her stray tears. Ruby opened her mouth to say something but found her brain empty of anything to say. Ruby chewed on her lower lip in thought before feeling a burst of courage. She reached up and wrapped a hand lightly around Qrow's wrist. In response, Qrow trailed his thumb across her cheekbone. Ruby's eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into his touch. "Ruby." The red cloaked girl opened her eyes, sighing at the conflict held in the red eyes in front of her. Both of them glanced over at her hand wrapped around his wrist still.  

"Don't do that," he whispered out.  

"Do what?" she inquired, her grip tightening around his wrist almost desperately.  

"Make me want you. You're my niece, I'm your uncle. I shouldn't want to kiss you right now." Ruby's nose scrunched up in distaste as she let out a sigh. 

"You're my step uncle. We're not related by blood or marriage of a family member or anything. The only reason I called you Uncle Qrow was because you're dad's teammate, and teammates are just as close as family," Ruby said, rolling her eyes at his excuses. Qrow went to speak, but was interrupted by Ruby. "I'm not just a niece to you, am I?"  

"Ruby Rose, you are so much more," Qrow smiled, thumb trailing lovingly across her cheek. Ruby leaned further into his touch, her lips ghosting against his palm. Qrow snapped out of his love trance before sighing. "We've talked about this before Ruby." His lips were almost pulled into a pout, which Ruby smiled slightly at.  

"I know," Ruby said with exasperation, "Wait until I graduate." She leaned forward slightly as if to tease him. "But who knows if I'll ever graduate. Beacon is destroyed, not to mention Vale. There's a lot more important things going on right now. A lot of stuff that we never expected has changed since we made that promise. The whole purpose of waiting was so that I could do a bit more growing up, and since going to Beacon I have done more growing up than I have in my entire life." Qrow was silent with thought as Ruby pressed his hand firmly against her cheek.  

"Ruby, I—" He watched as Ruby met his gaze completely. "Ah screw it." Qrow leaned forward, gently pressing his lips against hers. Ruby sighed in happiness as she returned the kiss. It was gentle and softer than anything Ruby had ever felt, but it was everything she had ever wanted. Qrow pulled away all too soon, removing his hand from her cheek as he did so. The two stared at each other in silence before Ruby breathed out a laugh and turned to face the fire. Qrow smiled, lacing their fingers together as Ruby leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. The two sat in a comfortable silence as Ruby smiled to herself.  

"We made a good team today," Qrow commented as Ruby hummed in confusion, "Against Tyrian. We made a good team."  

"Yeah, we did, didn't we?" Ruby smiled, "It's what we always wanted, to fight together, as a team."  

"What _we_ always wanted?" Qrow teased playfully as Ruby shoved him lightly.  

"Shut up."  

"So are you going to apologize for throwing my flask or—?"

"Shut up." 

"I'm just saying the least you could do is go retrieve it." 

"Oh, I'll go retrieve it, then hit you up side the head with it." 

The two continued to throw playful comments back and forth through the rest of the night. They relaxed into each other's presence, catching up on the time they missed together. The moment between the two lasted into the night until Qrow had ushered Ruby to bed. And everything was good. They were even better than ever. The moment was perfect. Everything was perfect. Until they woke up the next day and it wasn't. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading <3  
> comments make me a happy writer :)


End file.
